While the world fights the COVID-19 pandemic, time is running out for immigrant friends inside detention centers across the United States.

 

When my Fulbright grant ended early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I returned home from Mexico in March and began volunteering remotely at an immigrant advocacy organization based in New York. I volunteer on the anti-detention hotline, answering calls from friends in detention to update them on their cases or ask them for more information that we need to build their case. The latest task is to report on the conditions of the detention centers amidst the COVID-19 outbreak.

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 I have worked with several immigration advocacy groups in my undergraduate years. In March 2019, I went on a mission trip with my university to serve as a volunteer on the border. The trip included a visit to the Otero County Processing Center in New Mexico, a privately-run, for-profit facility run by Management & Training Corp. I remember the dorms. Rows and rows of bunk beds housed about fifty men, though I know in other detention centers even more men and women are crammed into one dorm. A line wrapped around the hallway to use one of the only telephones available for use in the facility for friends to call their loved ones or lawyers. In the dining halls sat long tables only a few feet apart. There was a small room designated as the medical unit where detainees could receive basic care. Although in most ICE detention centers, even though there are hundreds of migrants detained at once, there are no medical doctors on site. The only medical professionals available are nurse’s assistants. Doctors are only called in for severe emergencies. The facility did contain a Secured Housing Unit that held persons that were causing problems or at risk for abuse. Though I doubt the unit would be able to confine all individuals that are high-risk or showing symptoms of COVID-19. Nutrition is notoriously lacking in these kinds of facilities and recreation is limited to two hours a day, making it difficult to maintain physical health. Illnesses like the flu and common cold spread rapidly, weakening immune systems. In sum, Otero County Processing Center, along with similar detention facilities around the country, are breeding grounds for a disease like COVID-19. On April 9, Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center in El Paso, Texas reported that one detained migrant and one facility staff member had contracted COVID-19, although ICE has yet to report on these two incidents.

 

The truth is that detention centers in the United States have always left our immigrant friends in terrible conditions, but the situation has never been more urgent. 

 

One of the first calls that I received on the anti-detention hotline was from Marcus, a 25-year-old US citizen. Marcus explained that his mother had been detained in Hudson County Correctional Facility in New Jersey for almost two years. She calls her son every day, and every day the conditions she describes are worse than the day before. They are treated like animals. The workers at the facility do not serve food with gloves on and only recently began to wear masks. It is impossible to social distance. Toilets, showers, dorms, and phones are shared. As Marcus’ mother has asthma, she is at high-risk if she contracts the virus. “You only get one mother in life, I can’t lose mine”, he pleaded. As of April 10, ICE confirmed that 5 detainees and 1 ICE employee at Hudson County tested positive for COVID-19.

 

I received two calls from Jackson County Detention Center in Mississippi. The first was from Noelly. She suffers from asthma and low blood pressure and expressed her fear about what will happen when COVID-19 reaches her. She reported that while there have not yet been any confirmed cases, the facility had not changed any of their procedures amidst the COVID-19 outbreak. Her friend Karina later reported that detained migrants in the men's quarters were showing symptoms of the virus. The phone she used to call me would not be cleaned between uses. They have asked for supplies like sanitizer and disinfectant but have not received any, and while they have access to soap, there is little of it. As a diabetic, Karina is 95% more likely to die from COVID-19 if she contracts the disease.

 

The lines are flooded with similar reports. Unsanitary conditions, lack of nutrition, overcrowded living spaces and a lack of medical care leave detainees 

 

According to reporting on ICE’s website, as of April 10, there were 50 confirmed cases of COVID amongst those in ICE custody, while there were 80 confirmed cases of COVID amongst ICE employees. ICE has the authority to release migrants in detention. Instead, ICE is actively choosing to keep them there without parole, effectively handing them a death sentence. The vast majority of them have families in the United States that are willing and able to provide for them. Some of them are detained even though a judge has authorized their release while they await trial. Many are claiming asylum or other forms of protection and have a legitimate right to stay in the United States while their claims are processed. None of them deserve to die. 

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